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Ancient Spiritual Disciplines:
Daily Office

 “It is a paradox of human life that in worship, as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find possibilities for the greatest transformation…” 
 - Kathleen Norris

 

The urgent things in life often squeeze out the important things – like paying attention to God.   It is in the routine, daily encounter with God that the renovation of my soul slowly occurs.  If we need to put first things first, if we need to prioritize, what could be a more important priority than an appointment with God? The ancient practice of the Daily Office is simply setting aside fixed times each day to pray.  It is setting up appointments with God throughout the day that we keep like any other appointment.     

 What this does:

  •   It helps us to actually live out a God-centered life instead of thinking or talking about it.  How we spend our days is how we spend our lives – I want my life to be about God.
     

  •   It puts us in touch with the rhythm of the day – we become more aware the morning, the noon-time, the evening, and more aware of the seasons.
     

  •   It connects what we are going through right now to our relationship with God.  For example, the issues we face in the morning become grist for the mill of morning prayer 

     

How to do it:
Some monks have eight set times a day for prayer services.   That would be pretty rough for most of us!   A more typical approach is three set times, morning (Lauds), noontime (Sext), evening (Vespers).   A good approach might be:

  •   Set a fixed time and place in the morning for prayer.  Set an amount of time (say 20 minutes).  Write it into your calendar. Set an alarm, or a timer, whatever you need to make sure you can truly relax and enjoy the gift of this time.  
     

  •   Once you get morning down, try adding an evening appointment.   Create a quite time at the end of the day where you review the day and return to God with prayer.   Again, set aside 20 minutes and use whatever strategy works to make this a standing appointment.
     

  •   What to do during this time?  Some people find using fixed prayers and readings helpful while others find spontaneous prayers more meaningful.  Ideas include: